


Mad, mad dreams to follow

by Spylace



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Chuck Lives, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, Hot Chocolate, Huddling For Warmth, Knitting, M/M, Pentecost Lives, Snowed In, except for the cavities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-25
Updated: 2013-08-25
Packaged: 2017-12-24 13:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/940596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spylace/pseuds/Spylace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chuck has never seen snow before and Raleigh sets out to correct this unfortunate oversight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mad, mad dreams to follow

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for Pacific Rim Kink Meme in which an anon asked for: Chuck/Raleigh, Fluff - First Snow
> 
> http://pacificrimkink.livejournal.com/1613.html?thread=2817101#t2817101

It all came out three weeks after Operation Pitfall, when Chuck was well enough to be released from the hospital following his plus-fifty hour confinement in an escape pod holding on to a dying man. Thankfully, both managed to escape intact thought Pentecost needed to be kept for further observations and an experimental cancer treatment.

Mako had been so happy she’d elbowed Chuck in the mouth before knocking him unconscious with a proper hug.

“You’re overreacting.” Chuck whined as Raleigh squashed a colorful bunch of yarn on his head. It wouldn’t do to land him in the ICU because his poor, Australian soul couldn’t handle a bit of cold weather. Not to mention what Herc would do to him if the younger man caught a hint of cough.

“It’s alright.” Raleigh soothed using a voice applicable only to children and the very dumb. “I’ll save you.”

Chuck looked unimpressed at his inspired altruism. Packed tight under layers of lumpy sweaters, all carefully chosen from his knitted menagerie, a pair of long underwear and a bright yellow parka, he couldn’t stamp his feet, cross his arms, or run screaming from a car laden with enough supplies to feed them both for a month.

But he did scowl menacingly, his bottom lip sticking out as he radiated homicidal intent.

“I’ve seen snow before.” Chuck argued as they shuffled up the steps. He stared leery at the layer of frosty, white stuff piled in front of the door, a cabin Raleigh bought when he thought he’d never pilot again.

 Raleigh scoffed, “Drifts don’t count Hansen.”

“Peru, 2020.” Chuck shot back. He wiped his feet against the welcome mat, wrinkling his freckled nose at the burst of musty air.

Raleigh could have cleaned up before they got here. But between his and Pentecost’s miraculous survival and making sure Herc got through the day without punching out a reporter or the smarmy delegate from the UN, he'd had his hands full. Besides, this far in the Alaskan wilderness, housekeeping cost an arm and a leg. Which was currently being put to very good use stocking the pantry and the closet.  

 “You haven’t seen snow until you’ve spent the winter up here.”

Raleigh added, “You should be more grateful. I could be sipping a drink on a beach in Maui.”

 “Your life is a trial.” Chuck said, shrugging off the coat many a geese had died to make.

“I am willing to accept the challenge.” He replied serenely.

 

They spent their first night settling in, throwing open windows and making sure that the sneezes were actual sneezes and not in fact a prelude to some medical emergency in the middle of nowhere.

By late afternoon, the sun was fading fast. The air crisp and damp like standing in front of the freezer—good omens for snow even though there was plenty of it already on the ground.

To celebrate, he made them both a mug of hot cocoa using chunks of real chocolate and shots of rum. Chuck raised an eyebrow at the huge marshmallow floating in the middle but took a sip, tiny, tiny flickers of his tongue dabbing at his burnt mouth.

“Careful” Raleigh cautioned. “Slowly, don’t hurt yourself.”

The younger man flipped him the bird and gripped the mug tight using both hands. Raleigh thought idly that he probably had a few mittens lying around here and there; he could always knit a pair while Chuck slept. Shedding his demons had done nothing to improve his sleep. He doubted he was going to get much rest even after the long drive.

“It’s good.” Chuck said, looking surprised at himself.

He felt a slow smile spread across his face.

“What did I tell you? You’re going to love this place.”

 

There wasn’t enough wood to keep the fire going and they slept together on the fold-out bed, tightly curled around each other. Smaller without his persistent swagger, Chuck molded himself perfectly beneath his chin, breathing against his sternum. He really wasn’t half-bad when he wasn’t shooting his mouth. In fact he was pretty cute for a twenty-one-year-old man-child.

Drowsy, he pulled the duvet higher around his shoulders and let his head hit the pillow.

Raleigh drifted off to sleep, warm and content.

 

Chuck rolled the handful of snow in his hands, shaping it until he had the perfect ball. He yelped when a snowball struck him solid on the back of his head. “Hey!”

“Too slow.” Raleigh taunted. “Where are those ranger reflexes I’ve been hearing about?”

“I’ll show you ranger reflexes.” Chuck growled and tackled him into the snow.

 

“No, no, no, no, you can’t use that one!” Raleigh protested when Chuck tried to put his wool cap on the snowman. “Here” He said hurriedly, pulling the red pom pom off his head. “Use mine.”

“What’s wrong with this one?” The younger man asked indignantly, shaking all the colors of the rainbow in his face like a skittles advertisement. Raleigh snatched the cap from his hands and brushed the snow off the yarn.

“You’ll get cold.” He reasoned, pulling it down over the other ranger’s ears. “Besides, I made this one special. I don’t want it getting lost.”

The snow, Raleigh decided, made Chuck’s freckles stand out all the more.

“Why the hell would anyone want to steal this thing?”

“You’d be surprised.” Said Raleigh, wise in the ways of the woods. The sun was fast becoming a pearl-shaped gem across the horizon. He pushed Chuck towards the cabin. “Let me tell you about the time I thought it was a good idea to throw rocks at a bunch of crows...”

 

The dull thud of splitting wood broke him out of his reverie.

“Looking good.” Raleigh observed, admiring the accumulated pile.

“Enough to last you think?” Chuck asked, squinting at the overcast skies, his words turned to frost.

He shook his way. “Not the way you’ve been putting them in the fireplace every night.”

“Oi” Chuck shoved at him playfully. “You like the heat as much as I do.”

“Try spending five years on the wall.”

It was a testament to their burgeoning relationship that the admission no longer stung. Chuck seemed to realize it as well.

“Handy skill that when it starts snowing again.”

Ankles deep, the younger man looked like he still couldn’t believe that there was more to come.

Raleigh patted him on the back.

“Hey, at least we’ll be warm.”

 

Chuck turned out to be a shockingly good cook. The trout they fished out from the stream that morning smelled amazing.

“Hansen” Raleigh admitted with a small burp. “I am _impressed_.”

“Shows you what you know.” Chuck snorted. “My old man is a shit cook; it was either do or die.”

“I thought they fed you at PPDC.”

“Only if you make it to the cafeteria on time.” Chuck answered with the nostalgia of a battle-hardened warrior. “You’re on your own if you’re late.”

“Huh” He chewed for a moment then asked. “So how’d you learn how to cook?”

Inwardly, he winced. He had no idea what kind of a bombshell he’d just set off. As a jaeger pilot, Chuck was guaranteed a minefield of emotional issues and triggers not even a professional shrink could ever hope to understand. Biting his tongue, he was about to retract his question when Chuck flashed him his dimples, looking like a kid with a secret. He leaned close and Raleigh had to strain his ears to catch, “The Marshall did.”

 

Chuck’s face was red with exhilaration, his eyes sparkling like precious stones as they chased each other all over the snow. They had taken the sleds from under the cabin before climbing on top of a nearby hill. The snowstorm had blown itself out by morning and was gathering strength for one last hurrah.

In the meantime, he and Chuck took advantage of the lull in the weather to go sledding. Chuck stomped all over the fresh powder, briefly mourning the lost opportunity to set Max loose in the snow before Raleigh reminded him that they could always come back. This earned him a megawatt grin and tree full of snow on top of his head.

Then it was on. They were both laughing excitedly like a couple of teenagers, trying to avoid colliding into each other as they slipped into the pines. Chuck jumped to his feet, his eyes set on a fresh new hillside when Raleigh recognized where they were. Spinning his arms, Raleigh fell on his ass hard against the ice.

A shout of alarm tore itself from his lungs. “Wait, Chuck!”

Chuck whirled around halfway.

He had to. No one raised in post-kaiju world could have ignored the warning tone.

Chuck fell through the fucking snow.

“Shit—!”

Thankfully, Chuck hadn’t quite gone under. The other ranger clawed at the edge, catching nothing but smears of rime. Raleigh slid to his stomach, trying to distribute his weight as evenly as possible.

Fear thrumming through his veins like a bucket of icy cold water, he threw out an arm and commanded “Here! Grab my hand!”

Fingers groped uselessly at the air. In a desperate attempt, Raleigh thrust himself forward and caught the sleeve of the younger man’s jacket, adrenaline pulling them both back into the safety zone. “Thank _fuck_ ” Raleigh said fervently as he hugged Chuck close, pressing a heartfelt kiss against his left temple.

“I lost the beanie.” The Aussie said hoarsely, coughing up water.

“Your fine, you’re good, hey, hey, look at me.” Grey eyes overlaid blue. “I’m going to make you a new one okay?”

“Okay” Chuck agreed weakly.

 

He stripped them both before the fire until Chuck was just a shivering wreck in his underwear.

Raleigh got rid of it too because modesty at that point was largely an aesthetic concern, one that sank in a steaming pile on the wooden floor. Chuck went easily when he drew the younger man close, sagging like a wet noodle around the middle with his hair damp, smelling faintly of pond scum and the line of his cupid’s bow tinged blue.

Rubbing heat back into his extremities, Raleigh laid him down against the hearthrug where it was the warmest and covered him with a thick duvet. “Piss poor way to go” Chuck said, teeth chattering as Raleigh put on another layer and wiggled between, chest to chest. “After cancelling the apocalypse and all that.”

Raleigh laughed and hugged him, sharing his body heat.

“I can think of much worse.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He replied. “Like never getting to do this.”

Chuck let out an amused snort.

“Was this all a plan then?” He slurred, words tied up with his tongue. “Getting in my pants?”

“And having my wicked ways with you.” Raleigh agreed.

Chuck groped for him, clumsy fingers tracing the jagged lines of his scars and his back, nails scraping lightly down the arch of his spine. “Promise?” He sighed, too tired to do much more. His arms wrapped loosely around his waist, palming his ass with experience well beyond his twenty-one years.

Raleigh swallowed and said, “I promise.”

 

The next morning, Chuck was feverish and sore; irritable which was a good sign if it wasn’t so damned annoying.

“It’s just a cold.” He said firmly, feeling the younger man’s forehead which could have cooked an egg to pass the safety inspection. “You’re going to be fine.”

“Mmm” Chuck agreed, cracking open one eye. “Stay?”

Raleigh was only eager to comply.

“I’m starting to think that you only want me for my body.” He said with dignity.

“’course I am.” Chuck mumbled. He didn’t object as he was dressed in clothes, mismatched woolen socks covering his feet. His eyelids fluttered, bruised and purple as he turned away from the sunlight. “Smart and pretty, think I found a winner.”

 

Eventually, they relocated to the bedroom. Chuck burned like a furnace but Raleigh managed to bring his temperature down, thanking whoever had been considerate enough to prepare a fully-stocked first aid kit for them. For the next two days, he fussed over Chuck when he woke and experimented with homebrewed remedies.

The storm which had howled at their walls for three was gone the next day and Raleigh stepped out into a winter wonderland, sparkling and pristine. A foraging deer looked up at the sudden movement and disappeared into the woods just as quick. Chuck’s snowman sat buried next to their car with his hat askew and Raleigh figured that it might need a friend.

Making sure that Chuck was safely ensconced in bed, he started with the bottom, the middle, then the head. He decorated it loosely with pebbles and used tree branches as arms.

Raleigh had seen on the internet, when the first of the kaiju attacked the Pacific, the sculptures of monsters and their eerie eyes, startlingly lifelike in the snow. He didn’t think he could ever do something like that. The kaiju were monsters, it would be too disrespectful of the friends they lost, the sacrifices they made.

There were still chores to be done, the remaining snow had to be shoveled and wood needed to be split. He fretted with a ball of yarn between his fingers—what the hell was he on when he bought electric lime? An unexpected yelp sent him sprinting to the tiny kitchen, fearing the worst.

Raleigh found Chuck airing the tiny room, a blanket clutched tightly around his wide shoulders.

“Think I burnt the chocolate.” The younger man explained sheepishly as a way of greeting, color still high in his cheeks but looking much, much better. He held out a mug, shaking it slightly in Raleigh’s direction. There was a marshmallow in it, two, and chocolate shavings. “Can you make me another one?”

Raleigh stepped close and took the mug from him, setting it aside.

Chuck protested, quieting only when Raleigh kissed him softly on the lips.

He looked down fondly, at his lumpy sweater and mismatched socks.

“Whatever you want.”

 

By the time they left, there was one more snowman in the rearview mirror that they built together.

“Think they’ll still be here when we come back?” Chuck mused, his nose still red from his bout with a cold.

Raleigh liked the sound of that. He liked it a lot.

Grinning he said, “Guess we’ll have to find out.”


End file.
